Sin | Mark 9: 42-47
Thursday | November 05, 2020 |
Mark 9Sin
By Pastor Leslie Brown
We all do it whether we are willing to admit it or not. I think for the most part, the majority of Christians don't come face to face with the opportunity to sin and make the conscious decision to disobey. But we aren't as innocent of those tiny "little sins" we do day in and day out. We get so comfortable with our disobedience, we stop seeing it as so.
I'm honestly not sure where the "big sin, little sin" mentality came from. If anything, because of this poor mindset, many of us are probably guilty of committing sins on a daily basis: slander, gossip, disrespect, anger, to name a few. As a mother, I must be aware of what I portray to my children as acceptable and unacceptable. If I am not intentional, my passivity in allowing little poor behavior in my own life and their lives only reinforces a false sense of "big sin, little sin."
Unlike us, I do not believe God stops focusing on the little things and only worries about the big things.
In Mark 9: 42-47, Jesus gets brutally honest about sin. "If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell..."
Intense.
Here, Jesus addresses FIRST the issue of causing "the little ones" to sin. Could it be, there is a greater emphasis on causing others to sin than committing it ourselves? How do you cause someone else to sin? What we teach, by word or action, is a big deal to the Father.
Jesus goes on to talk about extreme measures to stop sinning in order not to be separated from God in heaven for eternity. This correction isn't a, "You should really stop that, Son," treating sin a "little," it's, "Don't allow anything to keep you from the Father."
It is interesting also how the words and thoughts of Jesus wrap-up in this portion of scripture in verses 49 and 50. "Everyone will be salted with fire.
Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again?"
Could it be, by allowing the "little sins" to become such a routine part of our lives, we grow so comfortable and complacent and are no longer able to be the salt of the world to those around us: children, peers, the lost? I don't know about you, but this statement of losing my ability (saltiness) to influence the world for Jesus and the thought of being unable to regain that ability to influence those in my life is a major gut check to see what I'm allowing in my life, even if it is something I have begun to look at as a "little sin."
Could it be, by allowing the "little sins" to become such a routine part of our lives, we grow so comfortable and complacent
AuthorPastor Leslie Brown
